President of the Dewan Negara

President of the Dewan Negara
Yang di-Pertua Dewan Negara
Incumbent SA. Vigneswaran since 26 April 2016
Dewan Negara
Style	Tuan Yang di-Pertua (formal) Tuan Speaker (informal and within the House)
Member of	Committee of Selection, Standing Orders Committee, House Committee, Committee of Privileges
Reports to	Dewan Negara
Appointer	Elected by members of the Dewan Negara
Term length	Elected upon a vacancy
Constituting instrument	Federal Constitution of Malaysia
Inaugural holder	Abdul Rahman Mohamed Yasin
Formation	11 September 1959 (1959-09-11)
Deputy	Abdul Halim Abdul Samad
Salary	MYR 362,000 annually
Website	Parliament of Malaysia

The President of the Dewan Negara (Malay: Yang di-Pertua Dewan Negara) is the presiding officer of the Dewan Negara, the upper house of the Parliament of Malaysia.

The President of the Dewan Negara is created under Article 56 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The office is similar to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat: the President is elected by the members of the Dewan Negara and is expected to be politically impartial. If a member of the Dewan Negara is elected as the President and is a member of a state legislative assembly, he must resign from the assembly before exercising the functions of the office. As the President may hold different titles while in office, it also changes the style. The current President is Datuk SA. Vigneswaran. Therefore while in session, the Senators will call him as 'Datuk Yang di-Pertua' (Datuk President) or 'Tuan Yang di-Pertua' (Mr. President).

Functions

The main functions of the President of the Dewan Negara are:

• to preside over the sittings of the Dewan Negara
• to be responsible for the observance of the rules in the Dewan Negara
• to ensure the relevancy of the points raised during the debate
• to interpret the Standing Orders in case of disputes and the decision is final

List of Presidents of the Dewan Negara

As of 2015, all Presidents of the Dewan Negara won unopposed in the presidential election.

Parliament	#	President	Term start	Term end
1st	1	Abdul Rahman Mohamed Yasin	11 September 1959	18 October 1965
2nd	(1)
	(1)		18 October 1965	31 December 1968
	2	Syed Sheh Hassan Barakbah	27 January 1969	5 February 1969
	3	Mohamad Noah Omar	24 February 1969	28 July 1970
3rd	4	Abdul Hamid Khan Sakhawat Ali Khan	20 February 1971	22 February 1973
	5	Omar Yoke Lin Ong	23 February 1973	6 January 1975
4th	(5)
	(5)		6 January 1975	31 December 1980
5th	(5)
	6	Ismail Khan	5 January 1981	15 December 1983
6th	(6)
	(6)		15 December 1983	13 April 1985
	7	Benedict Stephens	15 April 1985	11 April 1988
7th	(7)
	8	Ahmad Urai Mohideen	11 July 1988	9 July 1990
8th	9	Chan Choong Tak	17 December 1990	31 March 1992
	10	Vadiveloo Govindasamy	13 April 1992	16 October 1994
	(10)		16 October 1994	12 June 1995
9th	11	Adam Kadir	13 June 1995	30 November 1996
	12	Mohamed Yaacob	10 December 1996	27 December 1999
10th	(12)		27 December 1999	5 December 2000
	13	Michael Chen Wing Sum	7 December 2000	11 April 2003
	14	Abdul Hamid Pawanteh	7 July 2003	19 July 2006
11th	(14)
	(14)		19 July 2006	6 July 2009
12th	(14)
	15	Wong Foon Meng	7 July 2009	12 April 2010
	16	Abu Zahar Ujang	26 April 2010	26 April 2013
	(16)		26 April 2013	26 April 2016
13th	(16)
	17	Vigneswaran Sanasee	26 April 2016	Incumbent

Election results

Election Date	Candidates	Votes	Nominated by	Seconded by	Clerk
11 September 1959	Abdul Rahman Mohamed Yasin	Unopposed	Leong Yew Koh	Tan Tong Hye	Ramli Abdul Hamid
15 October 1962 Pro Tempore Chairman	Sheikh Abu Bakar Yahya	Unopposed	Leong Yew Koh	Tan Tong Hye	Ahmad Abdullah
18 October 1965	Abdul Rahman Mohamed Yasin	Unopposed	Tan Tong Hye	Amaluddin Darus	Ahmad Abdullah
27 January 1969	Syed Sheh Hassan Barakbah	Unopposed	Abdul Ghafar Baba	J. E. S. Crawford	Ahmad Abdullah
24 February 1969	Mohamad Noah Omar	Unopposed	Abdul Ghafar Baba	Pandak Hamid Puteh Jali	Ahmad Abdullah
20 February 1971	Abdul Hamid Khan Sakhawat Ali Khan	Unopposed	Abdul Kadir Yusuf	Tan Tong Hye	Lim Joo Keng
23 February 1973	Omar Yoke Lin Ong	Unopposed	Abdul Kadir Yusuf	Kamarul Ariffin Mohd Yassin	Lim Joo Keng
6 January 1975	Omar Yoke Lin Ong	Unopposed	Athi Nahappan	Pandak Hamid Puteh Jali	Lim Joo Keng
5 January 1981	Ismail Khan	Unopposed	Mohamed Nasir	Michael Wong Kuan Lee	Ahmad Hasmuni Hussein
15 December 1983	Ismail Khan	Unopposed	James Peter Ongkili	Ariffin Salleh	Ahmad Hasmuni Hussein
15 April 1985	Benedict Stephens	Unopposed	Mohamed Yusof Mohamed Noor	Tan Chang Soong	Ahmad Hasmuni Hussein
11 July 1988	Ahmad Urai Mohideen	Unopposed	Kasitah Gaddam	Hussein Ahmad	Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar
17 December 1990	Chan Choong Tak	Unopposed			Mohamed Salleh Abu Bakar
13 April 1992	Vadiveloo Govindasamy	Unopposed	Mahathir Mohamad	Ling Liong Sik	Mohamad Salleh Abu Bakar
14 December 1994	Vadiveloo Govindasamy	Unopposed	Anwar Ibrahim	Ling Liong Sik	Mohamad Salleh Abu Bakar
13 June 1995	Adam Kadir	Unopposed	Anwar Ibrahim	Samy Vellu	Mohamad Salleh Abu Bakar
10 December 1996	Mohamed Yaacob	Unopposed	Anwar Ibrahim	Chong Kah Kiat	Abdullah Abdul Wahab
27 December 1999	Mohamed Yaacob	Unopposed	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi	Abdul Hamid Othman	Abdullah Abdul Wahab
7 December 2000	Michael Chen Wing Sum	Unopposed	Ling Liong Sik	Samy Vellu	Abdullah Abdul Wahab
7 July 2003	Abdul Hamid Pawanteh	Unopposed	Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor	M. Kayveas	Abdullah Abdul Wahab
19 July 2006	Abdul Hamid Pawanteh	Unopposed	M. Kayveas	Abdul Raman Suliman	Zamani Sulaiman
7 July 2009	Wong Foon Meng	Unopposed	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz	Ong Tee Keat	Zamani Sulaiman
26 April 2010	Abu Zahar Ujang	Unopposed	Koh Tsu Koon	Shahrizat Abdul Jalil	Zamani Sulaiman
26 April 2016	Vigneswaran Sanasee	Unopposed	Azalina Othman Said	J Loga Bala Mohan	Riduan Rahmat

Deputy Presidents of the Dewan Negara

Parliament	#	Deputy President	Term start	Term end
3rd	1	S. O. K. Ubaidulla	22 March 1971	6 January 1975
4th	(1)		6 January 1975	31 December 1980
5th	(1)
	2	Abdul Hamid Bidin	13 April 1981	28 July 1982
6th	3	Sulaiman Ninam Shah	14 December 1982	1 April 1985
	4	Abang Ahmad Urai Abang Mohideen	29 July 1985	16 July 1987
7th	(4)
	(4)		16 July 1987	10 July 1988
	5	Tan Peng Khoon	13 July 1988	27 December 1989
	6	Chan Choong Tak	28 December 1989	16 December 1990
8th	7	Adam Kadir	13 April 1992	1 December 1994
	(7)		14 December 1994	12 June 1995
9th	8	Michael Chen Wing Sum	29 May 1997	4 May 2000
10th	(8)
	(8)		4 May 2000	5 December 2000
	9	Gapar Gurrohu	8 May 2001	22 October 2003
11th	10	Wong Foon Meng	7 June 2004	7 May 2007
12th	(10)
	(10)		7 May 2007	6 July 2009
	11	Armani Mahiruddin	9 July 2009	20 December 2011
	12	Doris Sophia Brodi	26 January 2012	12 March 2013
	(12)		12 March 2013	11 March 2016
13th	(12)
	13	Abdul Halim Abdul Samad	18 April 2016	Incumbent

Election results

Election Date	Candidates	Votes	Nominated by	Seconded by
27 December 1962	Sheikh Abu Bakar Yahya	Unopposed	Leong Yew Koh	S. O. K. Ubaidulla
22 March 1971	S. O. K. Ubaidulla	Unopposed	Abdul Kadir Yusuf	Tan Tong Hye
6 January 1975	S. O. K. Ubaidulla	Unopposed	Abdul Rahim Manan	Lim Ah Sitt
13 April 1981	Abdul Hamid Bidin	Unopposed	Mohamed Nasir	Law Hieng Ding
14 December 1982	Sulaiman Ninam Shah	Unopposed	Mohamed Nasir	Kam Woon Wah
29 July 1985	Abang Ahmad Urai Abang Mohideen	Unopposed	Mohamed Yusof Mohamed Noor	Paramjit Singh
16 July 1987	Abang Ahmad Urai Abang Mohideen	Unopposed	Hussein Ahmad	Bee Yang Sek
13 July 1988	Tan Peng Khoon	Unopposed	Kasitah Gaddam	Hussein Ahmad
28 December 1989	Chan Choong Tak	Unopposed	Suleiman Mohamed	K. S. Nijhar
13 April 1992	Adam Kadir	Unopposed	Mahathir Mohamad	Ling Liong Sik
14 December 1994	Adam Kadir	Unopposed	Anwar Ibrahim	Ling Liong Sik
29 May 1997	Michael Chen Wing Sum	Unopposed	Osu Sukam	Ting Chew Peh
4 May 2000	Michael Chen Wing Sum	Unopposed	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi	Musa Mohamed
8 May 2001	Gapar Gurrohu	Unopposed	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi	Pandikar Amin Mulia
7 June 2004	Wong Foon Meng	Unopposed	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz	Chan Chee Tee
7 May 2007	Wong Foon Meng	Unopposed	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz	Abdul Raman Suliman
9 July 2009	Armani Mahiruddin	Unopposed	Koh Tsu Koon	Jamil Khir Baharom
26 January 2012	Doris Sophia Brodi	Unopposed	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz	Koh Tsu Koon
12 March 2013	Doris Sophia Brodi	Unopposed	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz	Koh Tsu Koon
18 April 2016	Abdul Halim Abdul Samad	Unopposed	Azalina Othman Said	Mustapa Mohamed

See also

• Dewan Negara
• Parliament of Malaysia
• Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat

External links

• Parliament of Malaysia (Official site)